Background: The clinicopathological impacts of c-Met overexpression in bladder cancer have been investigated in several studies with conflicting results. We performed this systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the pathologic and prognostic roles of c-Met status in bladder cancer patients. Methods: Eligible studies were searched and identified from the PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases (up until October 4, 2018). The DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled risk estimates. Results: Eight studies including 1,336 bladder cancer cases were eventually included in this meta-analysis. We detected a significantly increased risk of poor overall survival (OS) associated with the high expression of c-Met (HR=2.42, 95% CI 1.36-4.32). There was no association between c-Met status and nuclear grade (OR=0.82, 95% CI 0.29-2.31) or tumor stage (OR=1.42, 95% CI 0.41-4.89). Conclusion: This study shows that the overexpression of c-Met in primary cancer tissues is associated with a worse OS in human bladder cancer. However, larger studies using standardized methods and criteria are warranted to verify these findings.
Keywords: bladder cancer; c-Met; meta-analysis; overall survival.